Saturday, June 21, 2008

Rally



Just a quick post. Didn't make it to the rally on Thursday but I tracked down this picture of Leon. I don't really remember any other team openly smoking cigars during a celebration parade/rally. The team also made an appearance at the (first place) Red Sox game on Friday. Boston fans are spoiled as hell right now...

P.S. James Posey wasted no time in already declaring he will test the free agent market. Why the hell would he want to leave? I'm sure Danny Ainge would have taken care of him. I guess when you have two rings you can do whatever you want.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Ubuntu indeed

Some people might have wanted a closer game. I am not one of those people. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers by 39 points to win their 17th NBA Championship. Let's be honest, the game was over with about five minutes to go in the second quarter, but this thing was fun to watch.



There are so many different aspects to the team, so many different stories. Everything came together at the right time. When I started this blog a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't sure if the Celtics could take that last step and beat a team that looked extremely formidable since aquiring Pau Gasol. I wasn't sure that Doc Rivers would be able to coach this team in such a way that they could overcome their weaknesses (and a boatload of injuries it turns out) and flaws in a best of seven series against LA. Frankly, I was livid after his Game five performance and am still a little bitter that Leon got treated the way he did. Again, I know Leon isn't an All-Star (yet) but I felt he could contribute enough with about ten minutes per game to help the team win.



I suppose all is forgiven for the time being. Powe got into the game last night and aside from an ill advised 12 foot jumper, had another quality performance. He had some huge boards and once again stifled Lamar Odom. In fact, the entire bench (Big Baby sighting!) played very well and never let up. Boston kept their intensity for 48 minutes and proved that they were the hungrier and better team. The Big Three came together with Allen more than redeeming himself for the first two playoff series, Garnett FINALLY playing offense like the monster that he is, and Pierce dominating both sides of the ball and proving he is one of the best players in the league. Let's not forget about Rondo too. He dropped a 21-8-7-6 spot in the deciding game of an NBA Finals?!?! Lastly, Kendrick Perkins showed how tough he was by gutting out 13 minutes with a bum shoulder.



Danny Ainge rolled the dice by bringing in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. It wasn't clear that they, along with Pierce would be enough to win it all, or even co-exist. But then he signed Eddie House and James Posey. As a Heat fan, I knew first hand that if Posey was motivated and in shape, he would have a tremendous impact and that House was a deadly spot up shooter. Combine those five with the youth that was remaining after all the trades with Rondo, Perk, Leon, Tony Allen and drafting Glen Davis, the pieces were there. What really brought everything together was Tom Thibodeau's defensive knowledge and Garnett contagious defensive instensity. People will inevitably start talking about repeats and such, but for right now, it's time to add one more to the collection up there:



Random notes:

-It's too bad that Red didn't get to see this one, but owner Wyc Grosbeck was classy in paying tribute to him in his acceptance of the trophy.

-Good to see my boy Dwayne Wade doin' work on the pregame show. Word is, he'll be ready for the Olympics this summer. As much as he'd help that team, a part of me wants him to continute rehabbing his shoulder and knee and get ready to start practing with Derrick Rose...So yes, an NBA championship is more important than a gold medal to me. These colors run apparently.

-The refs weren't really a factor last night because it ended up being such a blowout, but the NBA is going to need a Hulk-sized beach towel to start wiping all the egg of its face. They tried to let the Donaghy thing just fade away, but since the officiating was just horrible through most of the playoffs and with new investigations being launched into past games, David Stern needs to stop being so stubborn and really take a look at the referees as a whole. I certainly don't have all the answers, but something needs to be done.

-Besides Kobe, Gasol and Lamar, the Lakers kinda suck. There I said it. Sure, they might have won if Bynum never got hurt, but everyone else on that team is just not very good. Fisher's decent at the point and Vujacic can get hot being the three point line now and again but Luke Walton? Ronny Turiaf? C'mon. Mitchell Freedman?

-Will Jeff Van Gundy ever coach again? It seems like he's having way too much fun in the booth. Personally, I'd rather having him going off on weird tangents once in a while but providing great basketball knowledge than grabbing players legs during games.

And finally, for the last time this year, he is Leon Powe's line for Game Six:

9 minutes

8 points

4 rebounds

3-5 FG

2-2 FT

0 turnovers

How much playing time will he get next year? Will he even be on the team next year? Who knows. But people do know who is now. Game Two will be his calling card until the next big game from THE SHOW.

Congrats to Leon, the rest of the team, and the organization. Just start looking over your shoulders for number 3 in a red and black uni.

P.S. I'll keep posting about this and that. Of course, we got the draft coming up next week so be sure to keep checking back.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Why even bother Doc?

That was downright insulting.

What was the point of Leon starting when he was taken out after five minutes and sat for THE REST OF THE GAME! The sad part is, as soon PJ Brown came in for him, I said outloud, "I bet that's it for Leon tonight." Now in those five minutes, did Leon turn the ball over a few times? Did he take some bad shots? Did he not hustle/run up the floor or did he get rebounds pulled away from him? No.

He didn't even get a touch on offense. Not one. No field goal attempts, no free throw attempts. But he had zero turnovers, two rebounds and even won the tip against Gasol! To compound this stupidity, Garnett was in foul trouble all game and Brown lurched his way to another mediocre performance. By the end of the game, both of them looked absolutely exhausted while Powe continued to sit on the bench.

And to add insult to injury, the Daily Dime on espn.com has the nerve to put Leon in their "Sunday's Worst" category saying,

"Good news: He replaced injured center Kendrick Perkins, who didn't dress because of his shoulder injury, in the starting lineup. Bad news: Other than two rebounds and a foul, the rest of his stats across the board were the same as Perkins for the night -- all zeroes."

with no mention of the fact that he only played the five minutes. That's just bad reporting Maurice Brooks. No disrespect to Perk (and it sucks that he played hard all year and now has to watch from the sidelines) but I don't recall him filling up the stat sheet in the first five minutes of a game especially when no one passes him the ball.

The fact is, "Sunday's Worst" should have been Doc Rivers. (Or Phil Jackson really. Chris Mihm? Seriously?) Nevermind the fact that Brown played 25 minutes (and only had 4 points and 3 rebounds to show for it), did you see who had their best game of the series so far?

Lamar Odom.

Odom finished with 20 points (on 8-10 shooting), 11 rebounds and played 41 minutes. Leon ate him alive whenever he guarded him in Games 1-4 drawing charges, being physical and swiping rebounds. You could even argue that Lamar had the best game of anyone wearing a white jersey. (Yeah, I know I said in an earlier post that Kobe wouldn't have more than one awful shooting night unlike Lebron, but he had another stinker last night going 8-21. Wow.)

Mark Jackson said on the broadcast last night that the lineup of Pierce, Garnett, House, Allen and Brown was the Celtics best to go up against the Lakers because of their "length." There's no way anyone can tell me with a straight face that Brown played a good game last night. Bottom line: PJ Brown should only play 25 minutes if Garnett, Perk and Leon miss a flight to a game.

It even got to the point at the end of the game where I was wondering if Brown or Garnett ended up fouling out if Doc would just go 4 on 5 instead of putting Leon back in. Garnett was so beat at the end of the game that he front rimmed the first of two free throws that COULD HAVE TIED THE GAME! Doesn't it have to be personal at this point? Did Leon wear a red curly wig and a green jump suit while kicking Doc in the nuts or something? Did he take Doc's mom out for a nice seafood dinner and then never call her again?

Even with all of Doc's stupidity (don't even get me started on Cassell) the Celtics still almost won the game. They came back from another huge Lakers lead and had the series within their grasp until Kobe body punched Pierce (and got exactly zero percent of the ball) to knock the ball loose and get a dunk on the other end with a little over a minute to go. If the Celtics go on to win either Tuesday or Thursday, it will be in spite of their coach. Just another awful game by Glenn (what is his doctoral degree in btw?) that raised my blood pressure, and lowered Powe's confidence in getting any kind of minutes. As far as his actual confidence? I would hope that The Show can just chalk this up to his coach being an unthinkable moron rather than something lacking in his own performance. I need the Celtics to win tomorrow night just so I don't have to watch Rivers bumble his way through another game.

Leon's line from Game five:
5 minutes
0 points
2 rebounds
0-0 FG
0-0 FT
0 turnovers